The present invention relates to a data analysis system and, more specifically, to a system for generating a demographic and economic analysis of sales with respect to specific supermarket items.
Manufacturers of household consumer products spend a considerable amount of money on advertising and promotions. It is extremely important to these companies that such expenditures be cost effective and produce the desired results. For this reason, a substantial industry has developed to analyze the effectiveness of advertisements and promotions based on sales data at both the wholesale (from the manufacturer to the supermarket) and the retail (from the supermarket to the consumer) level.
It is quite common in the supermarket industry to utilize a checkout counter scanning system which scans a bar code on the supermarket products and transmits that information to both a cash register which displays the price of the product and a central computer which stores information concerning the product (e.g., price, product size, manufacturer, etc.). At least one corporation utilizes the scanner data for the purpose of providing an analysis to manufacturers of the effectiveness of sales promotions.
While the data compiled from supermarket scanners provides an analysis as to the overall effectiveness of the promotion and/or advertising campaign (i.e., whether sales and profitability have gone up or down), it does not provide a breakdown as to whether the advertising and promotions are effective for different types of consumers (i.e., men v. women, people under 30 and over 30, people with incomes under $20,000 and over $20,000, etc.). This personalized demographic and economic data is not generally available for analysis. This data is, however, stored and used by the check guarantee industry.
The check guarantee industry is in the business of guaranteeing checks based upon a database of economic information on individuals who wish to have their checks cashed in return for which the check guarantee company receives from the retailer a percentage of the amount of the check. In essence, check guarantee companies are insurance companies which insure retailers against bad checks.
When a customer presents a check to a retail establishment, the retail establishment calls the check guarantee company to determine if the check will be guaranteed by the company. The guarantee company determines whether or not the check is a worthy credit risk based on the stored demographic and economic data for that individual. If the company does guarantee the check, it charges the store a percentage of the amount of the check for the guaranteeing services.
Due to extremely low margins, supermarkets have generally been unable to avail themselves of check guarantee services. The percentage paid to the check guarantee company would cut sharply into the supermarkets' profits.